Elastomers for service in deep well environments

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For the last two decades the rubber division of BJ-Hughes, has been in the forefront of rubber technology as applied to products for the oil-well drilling industry. We welcomed the opportunities presented when we were selected to participate in the GEM program and extend our appreciation to L'Garde Inc., Department of Energy and Radian Corporation. Our first efforts, approximately 15 months ago were to duplicate the four compounds recommended by L'Garde and verify our ability to obtain equal physical properties. After some minor problems in obtaining exact duplication of the chemicals. we did succeed in matching the properties obtained by ...
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Description

For the last two decades the rubber division of BJ-Hughes, has been in the forefront of rubber technology as applied to products for the oil-well drilling industry. We welcomed the opportunities presented when we were selected to participate in the GEM program and extend our appreciation to L'Garde Inc., Department of Energy and Radian Corporation. Our first efforts, approximately 15 months ago were to duplicate the four compounds recommended by L'Garde and verify our ability to obtain equal physical properties. After some minor problems in obtaining exact duplication of the chemicals. we did succeed in matching the properties obtained by L'Garde. Aflas, a copolymer of teflon and propylene manufactured in Japan by Asahi Glass and represented by Xenox. Inc., is the basis elastomer for GEM formulation 291. Advantages of Aflas are high temperature resistance up to 550 F. (Short term), resistance to H{sub 2}S and amine environment, acids, basis, many solvents and hydrocarbons. It also has excellent resistance to steam and will not hydrolize when exposed to high temperature and high pressure steam. It has excellent physical properties including long term compression-set resistance at high temperature. We have submitted two products manufactured from GEM 297 to customers for evaluation. One was an accumulator bladder for a hydraulic pumping system with hot oil on one side and nitrogen on the other. However, our customer reported that its service life was no better than they experienced with epichlorhydrin. The second application was an ''0'' ring for sealing a bearing in a drill bit. Compound 291 was one of a group of compounds and did not perform as well as several of the others. At the present time we are not planning any further investigation of this compound unless some application would seem to require Aflas over other elastomers. Viton, which is a DuPont fluoroelastomer, forms the basis for GEM formulation 255. Although the particular viton used in the original work is no longer available, a currently available material is equal or better in all respects. Most applications of Viton involve a sealing function of some sort. Lasting sealability when exposed to high heat, pressure, and aggressive chemicals or hydrocarbons is the strong point of Viton. Compared to the earlier compound, 255 shows superior resistance to oils and organic fluids and very good resistance to hot water, steam and aqueous acids. We did extensive work with the compound, evaluating various modifications and adjusting for several possible applications. Sample products submitted to customer for evaluation include packers, stabilizers, O'rings and bladders. We have also submitted compression-set buttons and tensile slabs at prospective users request. Of these, the stabilizers and O'rings were outperformed by other materials, while results with the packers and bladders have not been completed. We feel 255 is an excellent compound and that along with our variations, these Viton materials will be very useful in future products. GEM formulation 266 (a blend of Viton and EPDM) was also the basis of extensive investigation for us. We checked many variations, including DuPonts recommendations for such blends and in general, we feel such compounds are a promising compromise for some difficult applications. So far we have submitted drill-bit O'rings which did not prove resistant enough to abrasion; and stabilizers, which are still to be evaluated.

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